I would also appreciate closure WRT posters who have been banned for these reasons. I did not know until this post that NEW was actually banned. I had discussed my concern about her story with some posters off board and had checked for new posts from her out of (morbid) curiosity, because it bothered me that so many people were expending so much energy and sympathy based on a highly improbably story. But it is at least reassuring to find out now that the mods did address it.

This is why I would like it if we could call shenanigans politely within threads, and get a final word from the mods. I'd had suspicions about her as well, and I discussed it with another poster and was encouraged to report it to the mods. I had no idea if there were any besides the two of us who had suspicions, so when she was banned I actually felt pretty guilty. Her story was so terrible that even if a bit of it were true, I'd feel like a nosy jerk to be even partly responsible for her banning. I decided I should just mind my own business from there on out--so I'm glad to finally know that we weren't the only ones.

Until just now I had no idea that NEW had been banned. What bothers me most about trolls and shenanigans is when they emotionally manipulate the rest of us. For that reason, I would like some closure so that I can stop being emotionally invested in their predicaments. I can easily think of 4 definite trolls here in the years I have been hanging out here, and I have been fooled 3 out of those 4 times.

Logged

I have enough lithium in my medicine cabinet to power three cars across a sizeable desert. Which makes me officially...Three Cars Crazy

Until just now I had no idea that NEW had been banned. What bothers me most about trolls and shenanigans is when they emotionally manipulate the rest of us. For that reason, I would like some closure so that I can stop being emotionally invested in their predicaments. I can easily think of 4 definite trolls here in the years I have been hanging out here, and I have been fooled 3 out of those 4 times.

I could have written this post myself. I didn't know there was any issue with NEW, and feeling a bit daft too.

Noexitwounds. She had posted about being raped and being pregnant with twins. I had just though she was banned because she was outspoken and had crossed the line one too many times in posts. In that case and in others, try to be supportive because sometimes real life just is ridiculous and I figure someone else may be helped by what I said even if it was inspired by something false. It isn't even just straight up trolls that are completely making things up but maybe stretching the truth or leaving out important details, or just coming back over and over again and posters getting frustrated with repeated pleas for help.

I had not intended this to be a thread to call out specific issues/posters, and it really was in a general sense. I hope the mods are not upset with this turn of things, and I hope I do not get in trouble This does kind of illustrate why these issues are so confusing.I

I am really really sorry. I know we are not owed mod responses, it is just frustrating getting bits and pieces of these things, feeling out of the loop. I just want to know how we should prevent this because right now people seem to be confused about how to respond because comments from mods on their end up buried in other and sometimes unrelated thread. I really hope I don't get in trouble and I don't get anyone else in trouble, again I am really sorry if this crossed a line

It's such a hard call to make ,I do have a vague recollection of a MOD saying somewhere not to go so far as to call "shenanigans" but that saying......... "That seems imppossible", "you said x and then y , I'm confused" or something to that effect is appropriate. I've seen poster link all of someones threads perhaps to highlight inconsistencies or trillion to one odds that all this happened to the same person. Note I've also done and seen this when the posters was getting advice on 1/10 of the situation and I felt the background would significantly change the advise. (so if the poster I did this to is still here , I wasn't trying to prove you were a liar.)

I've only seen someone called out( believe you are lying, said outright) here a few times. I have seen longtime poster be slightly aggressive with some people with very unusually/inconsistent stories.

I wonder sometimes when people say " That was terrible but you still made me laugh, you're writting style is very entertaining, You should write fiction" and/or "it's some unbelievable it must be true" is a sly way of saying " I think you are currently written fiction"?

Noexitwounds. She had posted about being raped and being pregnant with twins. I had just though she was banned because she was outspoken and had crossed the line one too many times in posts. In that case and in others, try to be supportive because sometimes real life just is ridiculous and I figure someone else may be helped by what I said even if it was inspired by something false. It isn't even just straight up trolls that are completely making things up but maybe stretching the truth or leaving out important details, or just coming back over and over again and posters getting frustrated with repeated pleas for help.

Well, that's the thing--maybe she wasn't a troll. I suspected she was and discussed it with one other person, but we still don't know why she was banned. And indeed, as soon as I reported her, I felt terrible--even if she were making most of it up, she obviously needed some sort of support. I still feel guilty, especially because I don't know if anybody had better evidence than I did (mine was highly circumstantial).

I had not intended this to be a thread to call out specific issues/posters, and it really was in a general sense. I hope the mods are not upset with this turn of things, and I hope I do not get in trouble This does kind of illustrate why these issues are so confusing.I

I am really really sorry. I know we are not owed mod responses, it is just frustrating getting bits and pieces of these things, feeling out of the loop. I just want to know how we should prevent this because right now people seem to be confused about how to respond because comments from mods on their end up buried in other and sometimes unrelated thread. I really hope I don't get in trouble and I don't get anyone else in trouble, again I am really sorry if this crossed a line

I think it's an important discussion to have and hope that you don't get in trouble for it. I appreciate you bringing it up even though it is delicate and uncomfortable.

I think that for the amount of energy and investment we put into posting on the boards, it would be very considerate that the moderators be communicative when our goodwill is taken advantage of. Personally it would instill a sense of, "well there are messed up people out there, but at least the mods realize how hurtful it is and are openly discouraging the behavior." I'm not sure if I'm being clear here. I just feel like the current way of handling it makes it seem a bit swept under the rug. I prefer when a post gets locked for being contentious and the mods post saying "So and so will no longer be participating in this board" because then I feel satisfied that people are not being allowed to blatantly abuse their posting privileges. It would be great if they could do something similar when a poster is banned for trolling.